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Delete User (What to do with their content - to delete or not)

What is the standard when deleting a user re: forum content

HappyJupiter

3:39 pm on Jul 17, 2011 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

Hi,

I run a website that includes user accounts. They have access to my website tool, a discussion forum and a Q&A section.

When a user account is deleted I want to know what should be done with their forum and Q&A data (ie: what's the standard practice).

I will be deleting all their personal info, user account data (ie: email address, username, password, etc...) and all their collected "tool" data. But my question is what should be done with their forum posts and questions they've asked or answered? If I delete their posts it could leave a forum thread disjointed, missing key parts of the conversation, or if they had started a thread that's very popular, then it would suddenly be gone. Also in the Q&A section there may be helpful answers they gave or popular questions they have asked that would vanish... I'm just not sure how to handle the deletion of these types of items. The opposite side is, of course, that when they delete their account it is because they want all that info gone (if they've posted personal info etc...)

Suggestions please! Thanks so much! :)

g1smd

4:31 pm on Jul 17, 2011 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member

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You should not delete a whole thread simply because one user has left the building.

You should also not delete all posts from a user and leave many broken threads.

You should delete the user's signature.

If there a small number of posts the user explicitly wants removed because of personal information, you should seriously consider removing those.

What if it were a wiki and a high volume user wanted all of their contributions removed? That would basically corrupt the entire site. It's not that much different with a forum.

Swanny007

4:58 pm on Jul 17, 2011 (gmt 0)

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What I do is rename the account to something like deletedaccount, remove the signature, profile details, disable the account, etc. The posts stay though as that would mess things up.

thecoalman

11:18 pm on Jul 17, 2011 (gmt 0)

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If there a small number of posts the user explicitly wants removed because of personal information, you should seriously consider removing those.

This is something you should absolutely do without question IMO.

As far as removing the account I would only do it with their request. This may be a bit of stretch but I often wondered if someone might be able to come back and sue you for such an action. The material they have posted is copyrighted by them and removal of the account could possibly be seen as removing the credit?

The opposite side is, of course, that when they delete their account it is because they want all that info gone (if they've posted personal info etc...)

I don't allow anyone to delete posts because of the issues you have outlined.

thecoalman

11:20 pm on Jul 17, 2011 (gmt 0)

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What I do is rename the account to something like deletedaccount

I don't know how other forum software handles it but phpBB has a special account "anonymous". Those posts where the author is removed revert to it.